Biobanking 2013 Americas Summit

Event Overview

The biobanking industry is growing at an exponential rate, as researchers realise the growing importance of using samples for R&D. This growth leads to several issues, commercial, ethical, and scientific.

There are three main strands to this conference: firstly the growth of biobank networks: what does this mean to researchers, how can standards be harmonized, and how can organisations collaborate successfully?

Secondly, the conference will examine the ethical and legal issues of biobanking – including a look at ownership and informed consent; how can you get proper consent for the samples and how can you prove that all steps have been taken to ensure ownership protocols?

Lastly, data management is a huge issue for biobanks, as they grow in size, how are the samples stored, how is the data pertaining to the samples managed, and how can biobanks make effective use of data for their own purposes?

Not only will these three issues be discussed, but the event will also look at drug discovery for biobanks, quality assurance, and include a case study.